Product Description

For a thousand years, an extraordinary empire made possible Europe's transition to the modern world: Byzantium. An audacious and resilient but now little known society, it combined orthodox Christianity with paganism, classical Greek learning with Roman power, to produce a great and creative civilization which for centuries held in check the armies of Islam. Judith Herrin's concise and compelling book replaces the standard chronological approach of most histories of Byzantium.Instead, each short chapter is focused on a theme, such as a building (the great church of Hagia Sophia), a clash over religion (iconoclasm), sex and power (the role of eunuchs), an outstanding Byzantine individual (the historian Anna Komnene), a symbol of civilization (the fork), and a battle for territory (the crusades). In this way, she makes accessible and understandable the grand sweeps of Byzantine history, from the founding of its magnificent capital Constantinople (modern Istanbul) in 330, to its fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3666 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 416 pages

Philip Pullman
'I've been reading it with fascination. This most intriguing of empires is the best introduction to Byzantine history I've seen. I can say with absolute certainty that I shall steal from it several times.'

Jerry Brotton, Sunday Times
'Herrin has taken the brave decision to approach her subject thematically, choosing particular events, monuments and individuals through which to tell her story ... Rich and convincing ... a fascinating account.'

Economist
'She presents Byzantium as a vibrant, dynamic, cosmopolitan reality which somehow escaped the constraints of its official ideology.'

Customer Reviews

Sorry, but it falls short of the mark
Let me begin by saying that I really, really want to like this book. I am a Late Roman/Byzantine history enthusiast and have read no end of books on the subject over the last couple of decades. Any book attempting to bring this sadly neglected area of history into the wider public consciousness, as Herrin is trying to do with this account, is to be applauded. However for me this falls way short of the mark due to problems ranging from numerous annoyances through to inaccurate impressions given through to complete howlers.

I am only 30-odd pages in so far as I write this, but am moved to review already because of these problems. To mention already a few off the top of my head:

- The last Western emperor was NOT replaced by "half-Vandal, half-Roman Stilicho" in 476, but in fact by the Scirian Odovacer. Stilicho, the power behind the throne during the minority of the Western emperor Honorius, was murdered in 408. This unbelievable howler from a professional historian is compounded by the fact that she again mentions "half-Vandal, half-Roman Stilicho", this time in the correct context, just a couple of pages later. A switched-on proof reader even without the historical knowledge should query discrepancies like this, and I would have thought that numerous people in academia would cast their eye over it before publication. It's presumably not been corrected either from the hardback to this paperback edition.

- After incorrectly saying that no Germanic language had a written form in the late 4th century (in fact Gothic did so), a few pages later she does correctly mention that "Ulfila" (sic - it should actually be "Wulfila" in Gothic form or "Ulfilas" in Latin form) translated the bible into Gothic.

- Alaric was not "persuaded to move west" - apart from the fact that the empire had absolutely no bargaining chips to persuade Alaric to do anything whatsoever (the senseless murder of the aforementioned Stilicho two years earlier put paid to that), Alaric died while still in Italy in 410 after a failed attempt to cross the sea to Africa and before he could leave by the northern land route. It can't even possibly refer to the later Alaric II as he was already firmly ensconced in the West in a kingdom encompassing southwest France and northeast Spain.

- The phrasing used seems to imply that Julian attacked the Sassanian empire before becoming emperor (could hardly be so, since he died in the attempt). And despite the regular outbreaks of war between Rome and the Sassanian empire, Julian did not really have any kind of unfinished business to deal with in that regard. His disastrous expedition east was frankly nothing less than a war of aggression.

And so on. It's a real shame because outside of these kind of factual issues, this is a well-written, very readable and entertaining volume with some real insights. For example, the more I read about mediaeval history, the more it seems to me that there is some kind of real tripartite cultural/philosophical division of the former Roman Empire between Western-Latin-Catholic, Eastern-Greek-Orthodox and Southern-Arabic-Muslim; Herrin mentions the same idea.

For a peerless 'popular' account of Byzantium look at the John Julius Norwich trilogy Byzantium: The Early Centuries v. 1, Byzantium: The Apogee v. 2, and Byzantium: The Decline and Fall v. 3. There is also a one volume abridgement of this, A Short History of Byzantium which I have not personally read but is undoubtedly of the same standard as the full version. For a discussion of the cultural legacy to wider European and Islamic civilisation, see Sailing from Byzantium: How a Lost Empire Shaped the World.

Good overview of Byzantium
By taking a thematic approach to the Byzantine Empire, Ms Herrin illuminates some interesting areas. However, you will need to have some background of the history of the Empire if you are to properly understand the points she makes.
John Julius Norwich's 3 vol history is the perfect place to start.